When you buy the freehold to your property, why do you have to pay extortionate surveyors’ fees to your landlord?
If you’re buying through a negotiated settlement you don’t necessarily have to pay the fees – except that they’re likely to be included in the settlement and the landlord could tell you to take it or leave it. If you’re buying using the procedures of the Leasehold Reform Act, the landlord is entitled to recover his costs, which will usually include the fees of his solicitors and surveyors, on top of the price of the freehold. The landlord is entitled to get the best possible price he can for the freehold, and this will usually involve employing a surveyor to perform a number of fairly complicated calculations.